In this first of two-part series, Lisa M. Bly-Jones, Ed.D. speaks with three of The Workforce Connection's women Board of Directors members, all of which have earned a key spot as a leader for their organization. Featuring interviews with Amy Ott of Boylan Catholic High School, Vanessa Hughes of Hughes Resources, and Kathy Crandall of Crandall Stats & Sensors, these incredible and empowering women share their pieces of wisdom - in a general sense and what they would share with aspiring female leaders.

In this episode, Lisa Bly-Jones, Ed.D. speaks with Sara Dorner, President of Rockford United Labor AFL-CIO. She is the first woman President in the organization's 66 year history. In addition to being the President of Rockford United Labor AFL-CIO, Sara is a labor representative with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

Prior to her now 7 years with AFSCME, she was a labor representative with the Minnesota Nurse's Association, and an organizer with the Service Employees International Union in Wisconsin. Her real union education came during her tenure as a flight attendant with United Airlines, where she became active with her union - the Association of Flight Attendants - and remained active throughout her near decade career there.

Rockford, Illinois is her hometown where she now lives happily with her husband and two young children. Sara holds a Bachelor degree in English from the University of Illinois-Chicago, she was listed in the Rockford Register Star as "people to watch" in 2019, and was named as one in the Rockford Chamber's 40 leaders under 40 in 2020.

In this episode, Dr. Bly-Jones shares clips from "Building a Business Case for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion" - an employer forum we hosted featuring speaker Dr. Sean Bailey. Mentioning her vision when applying for the grant for the employer forum series, Dr. Bly-Jones ties her vision with a poem from Lisa Nichols titled "The Dream Pt. 2". 

Workforce Wisdom is a podcast brought to you by The Workforce Connection Board. In every episode, Dr. Lisa M. Bly-Jones interviews leaders and professionals across the workforce, informing your path to career success.

To kick off this second season, Lisa curates the most striking words of wisdom from conversations last season. While she loved all of the interviews, she selected workforce wisdom clips that resonated with her the most, and further stressed the need to show up and step as bold leaders in 2021.

In this short episode, Lisa reflects on the challenges 2020 has presented us all, what gives her hope for the next year, and a moment of giving thanks. And while we are closing out for the year, be sure to keep an eye out for our return in 2021 on February 3rd!

In this episode, Dr. Bly-Jones is speaking with Lisa Medellin. Lisa serves as Director of Programs for Healthcare Georgia Foundation and is a member of the Executive Leadership Team at the Foundation. She oversees the Foundation's strategic grant making programs, management of program staff, and programmatic partnerships for the foundation. She ensures all programs and initiatives deliver desired results for the Foundation, by focusing on implementing grant making strategies to enable, improve, and advance the health and well-being of all Georgians.

Lisa is a primary liaison between the Foundation's philanthropic partners and the non-profit sector, both in Georgia and nationally. She provides thought-leadership to the Foundation on identifying new strategic funding opportunities, cultivating partnerships, and directs the allocation of the Foundation's annual distribution of $3.8 million. Since joining the foundation in 2005, Lisa has been responsible for awarding over $57 million in grants in Georgia. Lisa has successfully implemented a multitude of foundation health initiatives and programs during her tenure. She received her Master of Social Work from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, and completed her undergraduate degree from Illinois State University before leaving us and going to Georgia.

October is Manufacturing Month. In this episode of the Workforce Wisdom podcast, Dr. Bly-Jones is speaking with Andy Bittman, General Manager for IMA Automation North America, who has been with the company since 2017.

Andy has been involved in product development and manufacturing tests and assembly equipment development, including class 3 medical devices, aerospace products, and industrial products for the past 25 years. He has a Business of Science and Electrical Engineering degree from Marquette University and a Master of Business Administration degree from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business.

In this episode, Dr. Bly-Jones is speaking with Terry Roche, President of Northern Precision Plastics, which is located in Belvidere, Illinois, approximately 30 minutes northwest of Chicago. Their two buildings have over 60,000 sq. ft. including their new state of the art printing facility and an assembly area for electronic components and custom packaging. Operation is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with three shifts. The five main processes that constitute operations are injection molding, thermoforming, CNC routing, digital printing and final assembly.

Mr. Roche is an operationally focused executive who has led mid-sized industrial manufacturing companies as large as $125 million in revenue. He earned his B.S. degree in Industrial Engineering, cum laude, from Texas A&M University, and his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. During Manufacturing month, we hear from Terry about his day-to-day and what he loves about his industry.